Detroit Pistons Season Success Rests In Young Core’s Hands | How Much Improvement Must Take Place?

Detroit Pistons Season Success Rests In Young Core’s Hands | How Much Improvement Must Take Place?

The Detroit Pistons young core will be the reason why they take another step next season. But just how large and how many improvements have to take place? We’ll break it down. Today’s episode, Locked On Pistons podcast. Let’s go. You are Locked on Pistons, your daily Detroit Pistons podcast, part of the Locked On Network, your team every day. What’s the deal? Welcome back to another episode of the Lockdown Pistons podcast. Per usual, I am your host Kahill. I’ve been covering the Detroit Pistons for the Lockdown Network over the last four years, been a credential media member over the last three years, and I appreciate all of you guys who support the podcast. Listen every single day, the Everydayers out there. I appreciate all of the support. And today’s episode is brought to you by FanDuel. Football season is around the corner and visit the FanDuel app today. You can start planning your future bets. Now, later on in today’s episode, we’ll be discussing does Ron Holland, Assar Thompson, and Jaylen Duran, one fit, two, how soon do they have to figure out a fit with them? And three, could it lead to a decision being made about one of them in the near future? We’ll talk about that later. Then also, do the Pistons even have a rivalry in the NBA right now? We’ll discuss that as well, but let’s start off with the Pistons young core will be the reason why this team takes a step next season. We’ve talked about this a ton on the podcast. Um, if I look a little tired, by the way, it’s because I just drove to Chicago and back in one day. I’m recording this at 9:30. I am absolutely spent. I had to wake up at 4 in the morning. Drive there. My wife has a doctor’s appointment in Chicago, a specialist there. So, I had to go there in the morning, drive back. It’s very tired. So, if my eyes look like it, I apologize, but I am hyped to record today’s episode nonetheless. You guys can hear it. So, let’s get into it. We’ve talked about it a lot that this team’s off season was okay. I feel like it was fine. I saw another uh I think there it was the Athletic also graded the Pistons offseason they had it as a C. Um everywhere I’m seeing most of most grades for the Pistons I’ve seen for their offseason has been like a C C plus. That’s probably around where I am. It was all right. It wasn’t terrible. It wasn’t great. It was you know it is what it is. Um, and that basically signals to everybody that Trejan Langden believes that or wants to believe that the only reason or the only way that this team can take a leap next year, take a jump in the win column is because the young core improves. And I’ve said this before in the podcast, if the Pistons don’t take a big jump in the win column, I think Trejan Langden wins nonetheless. I think that’s how he looks at it. If the young core doesn’t improve enough to where they they get more wins, then he has answers and he knows he has to move off of somebody. If they do improve, okay, then he has his answers anyways and now he can pay guys. Like I think he’s just I’ve said it over and over. Feel like Trajan’s just in the I want answers mindset. Whether it’s a good answer or a bad answer, he just wants answers. So I think Trejan really feels like he can’t lose this year. But if the Pistons are to make a improvement in the win column and jump up the standings, it has to be it. The only way it can happen will be because the young core takes another jump. And it’s again, it’s not going to be because Duncan Robinson has a year like Malik Beasley did when he has one of the greatest shooting seasons we’ve ever seen. Quite literally, that’s what Malik Beasley did this past year on the volume and the percentages he was shooting him at. It was one of the greatest shooting seasons that has happened in NBA history. Can’t bank on that happening again. If they take a jump, Assar, Ivy, Duran, Holland, these guys have to Cade have to take a jump. The question I want to answer here because I’ve had a lot of people ask this and it’s a good question. How many improvements has to hap have to happen? How many players have to improve and how large do does the improvement have to be for this team to see an increase in the win column? The reason why I think it’s such a good question is this is something I’ve also talked about in past years on the podcast if you’re a long-term listener. Assuming and we have evidence of this going back five years now. The rebuild has been going since 2020 and we have evidence of this of this statement being true. Expecting large improvements from every part of your young core is extremely unrealistic. You can bank on maybe one, bank on two. If you’re lucky and everything hits exactly how you want it to, you can bank on three. But banking on every single player in that that is under the age of 23 or under 22 to all take a big leap forward in the same offseason is just incredibly unlikely and just doesn’t happen. So how many improvements have to happen? How many do we have to bank on? Do the Pistons fans have to bank on to happen for this team to actually see an improvement? So I want to go down the list. I think the immediate answer if you want to go to I would say is a SAR Thompson because of the the the turnaround in the season in January. He joins the team, the defense turns around and they play on an incredible pace. They were a top five top five to seven team in the NBA after January 1st in the win column. They were a top five defense. They played incredible basketball after January 1st. So, I think the quickest takeaway that most people will have is if Assar is just healthy all year and is able to play regular minutes all year, they should have a defense relative to what they had after January 1, and they should be able to play closer to the team that they had after January 1. I think that’s partially true. I also believe every season is different. Things play out differently. Teams play take you or or more or less seriously season to season. And again after January 1st that was also including like I mentioned earlier Malik Beasley shooting the the line off the ball just just shooting the leather off the ball just crazy. So does Assar playing all season help? 100% it will. Him not being on a miss restriction 100% it will help. Will it lead to the Pistons winning five more games next year than they did this past year and trying to get closer to 50 wins? Not so sure. I think it’s enough to get them. I think that would be enough to have them around the same mark that they’re at right now. I think 43, 44, 45 wins around that mark. You just get the same Assar Thompson back for a full year. I think that’s maybe where you would end up in order for him to take another step. I think Assar has to improve offensively. He would have to take a jump offensively to where he can contribute with the ball in his hands as a playmaker, as a secondary creator. But that’s the first player I look at because out of all the players, I do believe the quickest, like I said earlier, the quickest explanation you or quickest answer you can give is, well, Osar Thompson is being healthy all year that will translate to more wins. And on one hand, I can see it, but on the other hand, like I said, every season’s different. Everything plays out differently. Players play differently. Maybe the veterans don’t play as well. Maybe Tobias takes a step back. Like, you never know. So, I do think even with the Sardis playing all year, it could lead to some success, but he does have to improve offensively as well. I think that I think a SAR improving offensively would have the biggest impact on this team being a two-way player and not being played off the court. I guess in times where they want to go heavy offense, I think that’s the biggest improvement. Then you look at Jay Ivy. Jay Ivy, I believe if he can improve, so this is how I look at Jay Ivy. There are a lot of people in this current NBA that can score 18 points a game. A lot of people score 18 points a game in the NBA now. And the kind of jump that Jay Ivy has to make this to in my opinion to see this team take a legit jump forward and trying to get the 50 wins. It’s not just be one of the you know what, while we’re talking about this, I’ll look it up on my phone as we’re talking about this. But the way for the Pistons to make this jump is not for Jane Ivy to just be one of any any of the what 70 players that average 18 points a game or whatever. He has to become a legit second option offensively. And what entails in being a a legit second option offensively isn’t just the raw points per game. It’s the efficiency that comes with it. He has to become a much more efficient scorer at the rim. maintain. You can see a step back from the three-point uh percentage 41%. I don’t expect him to shoot 41%. If he can shoot around 37 38% and just improve as a finisher at the rim, I think everybody should take that. That would be the biggest improvement for Jane Ivy, it would make such a big uh big deal for him. I I said 70 players earlier. That was way crazy. Um but there are So Jane Ivy, what did he average this past year? Where is Jane Ivy? Why does he not qualify? I don’t think NBA do Oh, I don’t think NBA.com hasn’t qualified because he played 30 games. Is that what it is? Oh, it’s the playoffs. I’m a dummy. I’m a dummy. In the regular season. Oh, wait. No. Yeah, I was going to say 70ish. That I I was close. How many players averaged at least what Jane Ivy averaged or more? Yeah, 71 players. Oh, I was literally right there on the mark. Look how smart I am. But of the players that average 17 or more, there’s 79. My point is just averaging that raw points is not enough. He has to make a legit jump as a scorer where he’s like a 23 point per game score, 22 point per game scorer on elite efficiency. If that happens, he becomes a legit finisher at the rim. I think that is what will I think that will translate to the Pistons half court offense taking a jump. And I think that’s their biggest weakness going into the season is their half court offense. If Jane Ivy improves as a creator and as a finisher at the rim, I think that could definitely take the Pistons. Maybe not from a bottom 11 half court offense, bottom 10 half court offense to a top 10 offense, but maybe it can take it from a bottom 10 half court offense to a top 13 half court offense and with a top fiveish defense with the SAR back for the full season with Isaiah Stewart back. I think that could make a world of difference. Absolutely could. I think that’s Ivy’s pathway to really changing the outcome of this team. Jaylen Durren is very simple. his is to just become a legit defensive center, a legit defensive anchor that when Assar Thompson leaves the floor, they don’t fall to the earth defensively. We talked about this last episode. I don’t need to go into the numbers too much, but if that happens, where he’s a legit anchor defensively, that would be huge for the team. Ron Holland uh become a legit two-way player, a legit scorer, efficient scorer at the wing position. But with all that said, now I want to answer the question, how many of these have to happen? I think at least one of these guys have to do it. In my opinion, if Assar does it, you can live with maybe slight improvements from Ivy, Duran, Holland, maybe even no imp. Maybe if Duran returns as the same player and Ivy returns as the same player and Assar takes a big jump. I think that would be enough for the Pistons to see enough quite a few wins in the win column. I think that would maybe be enough. If Assar doesn’t improve, Darren doesn’t improve, and Ivy improves offensively the way he’s a legit secondary scorer, I think that probably has the second most impact because I just look at their their half court offense as such a weakness right now. And what will help that secondary what will haph my goodness, I can’t speak. What will help the the half court offense is secondary creation and a secondary scoring option for Kade. And if Ivy can be that in a an elite legit efficient score next to Cade, I think that would have the second largest impact. I’m putting Duran at third with his improvements because I think him becoming a legit like a a really good defensive center is just so in my opinion far away right now from him. I think he could become an average defensive center, but becoming a legit really good one is just so far away I think right now for him. doesn’t mean he can’t ever get there, but it’s just farther away right now to where I think those first two options, Assar becoming a better secondary playmaker and becoming a better ball handler, I think that’s possible this year for Ivy become a better finisher this year. I think that’s possible this year. So, one of those two things I think has to happen for this team to really see an improvement in the win column. And if Duran does take this jump defensively, that would be huge. I just don’t know how realistic that is to expect coming into this season. But if Assar takes a huge jump and the other guys stay the same, I think that’s the number one that could happen and you could see a big jump. If Ivy improves and the other two stay the same, you might see some improvements because of half court offense. Let Ivy and Assar take this big jump. Let Ivy and Assar take a jump. The Pistons ceiling could be whatever like that. That could happen. But for at least this season, just to see an increase in the win column, I think at least one of those guys, preferably Assar offensively, but at least one has to take a legit jump this year for the Pistons to see an increase in the win column with losing Malik Beasley and not making any big moves this past offseason. So, let me know comment section down below or over on Twitter, Cuckahill. Do you guys agree, disagree? Who needs to take the jump to see the Pistons see the biggest jump in their win column? Is it Assar? Is it Ivy? Is it Darren? What improvement has to happen? Let me know all that comment section down below or over on Twitter, Cuckah Hill. Coming up, Jaylen Duran, Assar Thompson, and Ryan Holland are a part of the Pistons young court. But can they play together? And how soon do you have to figure out can they play together before you maybe have to start making tough decisions? We’ll talk about that coming up. August 26 is officially FanDuel Futures Day, a brand new holiday for football fans who live for bold predictions and preseason hunches. For just 24 hours, again, for just 24 hours, FanDuel is giving you deals on NFL season predictions. So whether you’re calling your MVP, I’m calling it right now. I think Lamar wins his third one, eyeing a long shot division winner or ready to crown your Super Bowl champ before week one even kicks off. I’m picking again Lamar to finally get over the hump, get his ring, cement himself as one of the greatest quarterbacks of all time. This is your moment to take a flyer get in the MVP race. 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If you haven’t already, head to the YouTube channel at Locked OnPistons, hit that subscribe button or leave us a fivestar review on whatever podcast platform you’re listening to this on. That’s another great way to support the podcast. Check out the links down below in the description, the substack, the playback, the Twitch, all that good stuff you guys know. Check it out. I appreciate all the support. But let’s get into this fit between Arsar Thompson, Ron Holland, and Jaylen Duran. All three of these guys, I think everyone universally agrees obviously are are key pieces of the Pistons young core. Absolute key pieces. Everyone loves Ron, especially coming off this summer league, but even after his rookie season, showed real glimpses of what he could be in this NBA. I think most people love Assar, and most people really like Jaylen Duran, and you saw success this past year with Assar and Jaylen Duran, especially defensively with them both on the floor. But can Ron, Assar, and Duran play together is the question I’ve been seeing people ask me a lot in the comments, tweeting at me. So, I decided to answer it here. Can they Can they play together right now? No. I I don’t think they can play together right now. I don’t think that requires a lot of, you know, crazy crazy analysis. Three guys who are not very good shooters, one two of them who are basically non-shooters. It’s going to be hard to play them. It’s definitely going to be hard to play them all together. for what it’s worth this past year, 82 game season. Now, Assar wasn’t available till like halfway through December, so whatever. But this is still a very, very small sample size even considering that. Assara, Ron, and Duran only played 40 minutes this past year. Not enough to even look at it at all. 40 minutes. Not even one full basketball game. Couldn’t play together this past year. So, no, I don’t expect to see these guys playing together next year. I don’t expect it. I don’t think it would make much sense. just flatly don’t expect to see it happen this year. That then leads to the question of if these three guys are a part of a young core you’re building around, but then you’re also acknowledging that they cannot play together, how soon do you need to find out that they can play together before you make a decision that maybe one of them has to go? I think you have some time. Now, I wrote earlier for my Substack earlier this offseason, right before free agency. Wrote about what I was hearing and things I had heard throughout the offseason. If you haven’t read it, go check it out on the Substack released right before free agency. But in that article, I talked about how I have heard throughout the offseason that there is there are people within the Pistons organization that want to see Assar and Ron play together this year. They want to see those minutes. Maybe not for long stretches, maybe not for absolute huge sample size, but I have heard that there are people who want to see that duo play this year. And especially if Ron can shoot closer to how he did in summer league, if he can shoot like that, people are going to want to see those two guys playing together. So, I do believe that there is a want obviously to see some of these guys pair together and see how they fit moving forward. And I do believe that there’s a a heavy belief that long-term down the line, this is the core. I think that’s I I also speculate that that’s why you heard the Pistons interested in stretch fives because how can you play Ron and Assar together? Well, you can play him with the stretch five. You can play him with a Miles Turner. You can play him with a Naz Reed. You can play him with the Santi Alama. That allows you to play two guys that maybe aren’t the greatest shooters when you have a stretch five. Now, that just answers the question of Assar and Ron. That doesn’t answer how you can play Assar, Ron, and Duran together. At the end of the day, to wrap it all to to get back to where I was trying to say, you don’t have to find this out this soon. It doesn’t have to be this season. Now, eventually, you do have to figure that answer out before you start paying people. And that’s why paying Duran, I believe the Pistons may wait with that because they they would like to get answers on locking in guys long-term to heavy contracts when you don’t know if they can play together is incredibly risky business. Now, if you can get Dur on a good deal, which I think you can, I think you should be fine giving him a good deal, then yeah, you sign them because at the end of the day, maybe in two, three years, if you know it doesn’t work, okay, he’s on a contract, you can trade. Or maybe it’s not Dur that you feel has to trade. Maybe it’s Ron. Maybe in some universe it’s Assar. But that my overall point is you don’t really want to pay guys heavy money without knowing that they fit like the young core fits. You don’t really want to pay guys. Keith Smith talked about this on the podcast. You don’t want to pay guys with the intention to trade them. You like to pay them with the option to trade them. Know that it’s a tradable contract, but you don’t want to pay guys with the intention that you are going to trade them. That that’s usually not how you like to do things. I think the Pistons can wait two years to figure out how this works. Ron is very young. Now, Osar, you’re you’re going to come into contract extension talks next year, so maybe you can make the argument that that kind of speeds it up. But Ron is very young. He’s only 20 years old. This is going to be his second season. I think Ron, the key to them being able to fit together long term is Ron becoming a shooter. And maybe not a sharp shooter, not you know Malik Beasley is not what you’re asking him, but can he become a 36% three-point shooter? Can he become a 37% three-point shooter? His shot, his shot is a lot closer to coming through than Assars and obviously Jaylen Durren. So if Ron can develop a jumper that would then theoretically allow you to play Ron, Assar, Duran with Cade, and maybe Ivy if all those guys improve and you decide that’s your young core. But the only way it can work is if one of those guys, and it seems like it’s going to be Ron, improves as a three-point shooter. Now, if he does improve as a three-point shooter, I think that’s incredibly like I think that would be an incredible core. Now, you may have questions about can one of them play the four or would Ron just be playing the two guard? Would it be Cage, Ron, and Assar? Then would that leave Ivy? Those are questions that you have to get into maybe at the end of this year. But as when it comes to Ron, Assar, and Duran, I think you have some time. At the end of the day, if you have to, I’m comfortable paying Duran around $24 million annually on his contract extension because even if you decide that maybe in a two years you want to trade him, that’s a tradable contract, especially with the salary going up, I think eventually, maybe earlier on you feel like you’re overpaying him a bit, but as the s as the years go on, it starts to even out a little bit. So, I think you’d be able to trade Duran easily on a $24 million contract. Hopefully, that’s that’s the hope. So, if it didn’t work, you have that. or again if you felt like Ron’s the one you had to move or sorry same thing. So I don’t think they they have to get answers this year. Do I think maybe they try it in spurts if Ron has shown improvement in his shot? Maybe. Maybe they do that. I do think you see a lot of Ron and Assar. I do think you see that a decent amount. But Ron Assar Duran, I don’t think you need to have answers on that until you’d like to see. How about this? Not this year, not 25 26, but I think in 26 27 you want to be able to start playing experimenting with them together. You want to be able to start increasing the the sample sizes of it and start testing it out and seeing if you can make it work. I think that’s when you want to start testing out. But this year, it doesn’t have to happen this year. Ron is in his second year. Don’t need to Ron could be in year five at age 23 becoming a three-point shooter. Why would you Why would you react so quickly right now? You don’t need to react quickly to this and Ryan has a long future ahead of him where you can wait and watch the progression happen. So don’t need answers this year. It is definitely I for those who ask it. It 100% is a fair team building question 100% and eventually that is a team building question that has to be answered. This is something Sam Vini’s brought up a lot. Um I think John Hollander is even brought up a lot with the Pistons young core. If you’re going to pay all your guys, you want your best guys to be able to play together. And if you don’t think they can play together, they shouldn’t be your five best guys. Like that’s I agree with that. But I even though with the success of this past year, it was fun. I don’t believe the success of last year should rush the decision on all five. Now maybe you have a decision on one of them. Maybe Ivy or Duran based because they have an extension this year. You decide on one of them at the trade deadline or maybe next offseason. But I don’t feel like you’re rushed into making a decision on all five. Maybe more so, let’s keep it to Ron, Assar, and Duran. I don’t feel like you have to make a decision on those three whether they can play together at least two years from now. That would be my expectation. So, don’t expect to see the lot of them this year. For what it’s worth, again, I they didn’t play at all this year, 40 minutes. When Ron and Jaylen Duran play together, they played 254 minutes together this past year. Minus 15.03 03 net rating had a terrible defense 128.05. So there’s two avenues that have to improve if you want these guys to work. One is the one we mentioned earlier obviously with Ron Holland improving his jump shot. I think that is number one obviously number one clear as day. But then number two has to be that Duran has to improve and show improvement as an individual defender to where he’s not just good defensively when Assar’s on the floor because that’s all the numbers show. Now, I do believe he made some improvements, but if Duran, that’s another thing that has to happen. Duran has to improve as a defender to a point where if he’s not playing with the start, he’s still holding his own and the defense doesn’t crater. Jaylen Duran and Ron Holland should not be a duo that has a minus5 net rating. That has to be something that improves. So, Ron improves a jump shot and Duran has to improve as a legit defender individually. both those things happen because maybe the other pathway to these guys I know I’m rambling a little bit at this point another pathway to them maybe Ron doesn’t ever become a a crazy good three-point shooter but maybe Ron becomes such a great defender we know how great of a defender Assar is and Duran improves immensely as a defender with the size you have in Cade and his defensive ability maybe you just maybe it’s not that you have a top 10 offense but maybe you have the best defense in the NBA that’s what it is maybe that’s your pathway Okay, it’s it’s a wonky one, but maybe that could be it. But that requires Dur improving as a defender. So, one of them improving as a jump shooter, Dur improving as a defender. Th those are the two pathways that have to happen in order to see these guys eventually play minutes together. And my timetable for when you have to have a good feeling or at least some kind of inclination on them is at the end of the 26 27 season. That’s where I believe you have to have a decision on those three. doesn’t mean you can’t decide to move on on on Duran or an Ivy as a deadline because of contract extension stuff, but as a trio, I don’t think you could you you are going to get an answer from the trio at least for the 2627 season. So, let me know comment section down below or over on Twitter. Are you guys willing to wait that long? Do you think they need to find out sooner and why? Let me know again comment section down below or over on Twitter. The Pistons got a rivalry game against the Houston Rockets during rivalry week for the NBA. Now, I’ve seen a lot of Pistons fans say, “Well, that’s not the Pistons rival. Why are they playing the Houston Rockets?” So, now I ask the question, “Do the Pistons even have a rival in the NBA right now?” We’ll discuss that coming up. So, I want to thank you guys again. Make Lock Pistons your first listen every single day. We’re free and available on all your podcast platforms. If you haven’t already, head to the YouTube channel at Lockdown Pistons. Hit that subscribe button or leave us a fivestar review on whatever podcast platform you’re listening to us on. That’s another great way to support the podcast. All right, so the Pistons got a lot more national TV games this year. We talked about it a lot last episode. I believe it’s at 15 or 16 national TV games when you count Peacock, NBC, ESPN. I’m really excited, by the way, to see the NBA on NBC. And I like this little coast to coast thing they’re going to be doing. I think it could be really fun. Um, I’m not a fan on the fact that I have to have a NBC, Peacock, ESPN, you know, FanDuel Sports. Like I I have to have like five different subscription. I I’ve already ranted about that. I think that’s so dumb and it’s it’s it makes it hard for people to watch your your your your sport. Makes it hard for people to want to support your local teams. I just wish the Pistons had a better option. But I’m not going to get into that whole rant again. Point is, the Pistons do have a lot more national TV games. A lot more people will be watching them. And one of the games that will be watched nationally is their game against the Houston Rockets during rivalry week. The NBA has decided that the Houston Rockets and the Detroit Pistons are a rivalry. And I’ve seen some people say in the Pistons community, they’re not a rival of the Pistons. Jaylen Green’s not even on the Houston Rockets anymore. Why is this the game? This is my response to that. One, I do believe the Pistons and the Rockets are a rival or a rivalry for two reasons. One, yes, it started technically I guess technically started with the Jaylen Green K Cunningham I guess what do you want to call it? Quote unquote beef or like you know tension, whatever you want to call it. Wasn’t beef. They don’t I mean it’s not like that serious I guess but like you guys get what I’m saying. It technically started with that, but these two teams started their rebuild at the exact same time. They were getting compared during their rebuild because not just because of Kade and Jaylen Green. Their whole young cores have been getting compared to each other since they both started their rebuilds. The last three, four off seasonasons, I’ve had a Houston Rockets content creator, whether it’s Jackson or Roo on the podcast to discuss the young course compared to each other. And it wasn’t just because of Kade and Jaylen Green. It’s because these teams started at the exact same time. Now, the Kade and Jaylen Green stuff definitely elevated it 100% and made it the rivalry it was. But once Jaylen Green leaves, these teams have been getting compared for so for such a long time. While Jaylen Green effect kind of, you know, leaves the rivalry a little, you know, brings it down a little bit, the raw comparisons are still going to be there. That’s one. Two, the Thompson Twins. I I don’t know how people are just glossing over this. Like as as long as Assar Thompson’s on the Pistons and a men’s on the Houston Rockets, the Pistons are going to get a national TV game versus them every single day. Like every single year, not every single day, but every single year. Every single year, as long as Assar Thompson, Amen Thompson are on their respective teams, you will get that national TV game. Assar could be traded to the Cleveland Cavaliers. He could be traded to the Utah Jazz, and you will get Utah Jazz versus the Houston Rockets. A man could be traded to the Brooklyn Nets and you will get the Detroit business versus the Brooklyn Nets every single year because the Thompson Twins are incredibly marketable. The NBA loves them. They’ve been pushing them a ton this off season. Everyone loves them. They’re great to watch. Crazy ass like all that stuff. They are going to be a national TV game every single year, especially with our men on the Rockets with everything that happened previously with Jaylen Green versus Kade. That is going to maintain a rivalry until one of them eventually either retires or gets traded from the team. That’s as simple end of day. That’s what’s going to happen. It is what it is. Now, the next question would be if the Pistons didn’t have if it wasn’t that’s the wrong way I was wording it. If it was not the Rockets, if the Rockets are not the Pistons rival, then who is it? I would argue the Pistons just don’t have one then. I don’t who’s the the Pistons don’t have a rivalry? one, they might have a team that they’ve beaten in the playoffs or have this, you know, the this competitive edge over or this back and forth competitive edge going on to where it creates one. They don’t have that. They just got to the playoffs this past year. People want to say the Knicks. I don’t think the Knicks are a rivalry. Just because the Pistons played them in their first playoff series back, does that mean the the Pistons and the Cavs were, you know, a rivalry back in 2016? Like, I don’t think that’s what makes it one. I don’t there’s no beef between the Knicks and the Pistons. Like Jaylen Brunson was complimenting us all after the series about how good his defense was. Like there was no like what was the beef? Maybe the coaches talking about the officiating back and forth, but like there was no, you know, real beef between them. There was one team there’s only one other team that I thought could be a rival for the Pistons. They actually were and it’s the Indiana Pacers. However, with Miles Turner gone, who was one of the main pieces of it and Harley being out for the season and them not being that good, both the guys that were a part of the rivalry are gone like for at least for this year. Miles is gone for, you know, rest of his career, but Harley is out for the rest of this year. That’s that’s cooked. That’s cooked. Now, if those guys were still if Miles and Halie were still in Indiana, then yes. And it’s different from the Houston because the Pistons and Pacers weren’t getting compared to for five years. Houston and Detroit have. So even with Jaylen Green leaving, I still think it stays there. And then obviously you have the Twins. That’s the main thing. You have the Twins. Indie and Detroit were only a rivalry. Maybe really only on the Piston side because I saw some Pacers fans when I tried doing this during the season. A lot of Pacers fans were like, “We don’t care about you. Oh, why you you know it’s only it’s a one-sided beef.” Haha. Even locked on Pacers host Tony East was like, “You guys care more so much more about us than the Pacers care, you know, about you guys.” Like, so maybe it’s just a one-sided thing, but the the on the court, I don’t it wasn’t one-sided. Tyrese was going at the Pistons talking hella crazy. Miles Turner was was getting close to fisticuffs with multiple Piston players. Like they they were every single time these teams met, it was a lot of crazy stuff going on. So, I thought that would if there was another one, it would have been the Pacers. But the Pacers, like I said, they’ve lost Hi, they’ve lost Miles Turner. So, I don’t think that’s a rivalry anymore. Maybe if you want to try to push the Ivy Mathin rivalry, but neither of those players are good enough to be considered rivals. That’s like um what is it like the And look, I know Ivy fans are going to get so mad at this, but this is funny. You guys know that tweet that’s like these girls are having a mid- off, you know, that like that’s what that would be. Is that really a rivalry? Like that’s just a mid- off. Like come on. That can’t be enough to make the whole franchise, you know, or rival. Um, but yeah, I I do think it’s still Houston again because of the Twins aspect and because of the the whole rebuilds being compared to each other for years. Outside of that, I don’t see one. I I don’t think the Pistons have a rival. And they’ll create one eventually as they get deeper into the playoffs, play more playoff teams, win playoff series. They’ll create one. One will happen, but until then, I do think the NBA was right in giving the Pistons and Rockets the rival game. And I I don’t really see the argument for another team uh the Pistons could get it with right now with what happened with Indy’s offseason. And everyone should be happy the Pistons get a national TV game. Like that should be like anytime the Pistons get one, I don’t care if it was for, you know, insert X. If that gets them a a national TV game, that should be fun. So that’s my takeaway there. Let me know comment section down below or over on Twitter, Cook, how you guys feel about that one. But that’s all I’ve got for you guys today. Thank you guys for making Lockdown Pistons your first listen every single day. Free available on all your podcast platforms. Leave us a fivestar review, whatever podcast you’re listening to this on. Hit that subscribe button if you haven’t already. And until next time, I’ll see you guys later. Stay safe out there and peace out, everybody.

Detroit Pistons’ young core poised for a leap? Ku Khahil dissects the potential for improvement and the challenges ahead.

Host Ku Khahil analyzes the Pistons’ rising stars, including Ausar Thompson, Jalen Ivey, and Jalen Duren. He explores the fit between Thompson, Ron Holland, and Duren, questioning their on-court compatibility. The episode also tackles the budding rivalry with the Houston Rockets, featuring the Thompson twins, and examines the Pistons’ path to creating meaningful rivalries in the NBA.

Tune in for expert insights on the Pistons’ strategy, player development, and prospects in this must-listen analysis of Detroit’s basketball future.

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